Information is available in quantities significantly larger than has ever been known in human history. For example, EXCITE, one popular search engine on the World Wide Web, now claims to routinely examine and index 250 million pages of online information and to consider another 500 million pages for possible inclusion in the EXCITE search system. Information is also available to more people than ever before in human history. The use of electronic information has increased more than a thousand fold since 1990.
Interface technology that assists searchers in locating target information from all available information is still evolving. One popular method for finding information online is a Key Word search. A user types a word or words in a search box provided for this purpose. The word(s) typed are used to search all available documents and return xe2x80x9chitsxe2x80x9d to the user. Most modern online electronic search engines, including well known search sites such as ALTAVISTA and LYCOS, include Key Word searching.
A second popular method for finding information is by presenting a Directory. Typically, Directory searching involves presenting a list of categories. The user selects from among the choices that are displayed. Additional, more specific, search terms are then presented and selected by the user. The search process is organized hierarchically so that a selection from one category leads to a set of other choices contained within that category. A user moves down the xe2x80x9cbranchesxe2x80x9d of the directory xe2x80x9ctreexe2x80x9d until they find the information they want. YAHOO and MICROSOFT NETWORK are examples of the many publicly available electronic search engines that provide Directory listings.
Cochran describes non-hierarchical searching in U.S. Pat. No. 5,768,581, which is herein incorporated by reference. Instead of moving down a Directory tree, a user selects search terms from several search categories that are not organized in a branching tree structure. Selecting from one category does not eliminate the possibility of selecting from other categories because categories are mutually exclusive, unlike Directory searching.
Cochran et al., in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,879,648 and 5,206,949 herein incorporated by reference, describe two distinct ways of developing lists of search terms. Static lists are developed xe2x80x9clogicallyxe2x80x9d from what is already known about how information is organized and used. Static lists are constructed from theory and/or the expected use of the information and are prepared in advance of use of the lists. Static lists do not require a search through the information source, and remain the same unless a list of terms in the program itself is edited. For instance, a static list may be an alphabetical list of city names in a company""s service area. It is relatively unchanging and can be constructed by management personnel in advance of any search.
Dynamic lists, on the other hand, are developed by an active search of the information under consideration. Dynamic lists vary over time as the information source changes, and may change frequently. For instance, a dynamic list may be an alphabetical list of the names of people who have enrolled in an online promotion. The list changes from minute to minute as people sign up. The Cochran patents describe one way of constructing static and dynamic lists.
All online information search systems that display selectable is search terms are relatively slow. It often takes more than a minute to select multiple search terms from a Directory or non-hierarchical search system. A user must click repeatedly to scroll lists, to move down a page or to change pages in order to find the information they are looking for. People have the capacity to look at choices much faster than the choices are presented by these displays. As more users search more and larger sources of online information, there is a tremendous loss of time waiting for computer displays to catch up with the human ability to scan and select.
The relative slowness of presenting search terms is not a function of search speed or communication speed. Computer hardware and communication bandwidth is now sufficient for quick interactions. The slowness of search technology is caused mainly by inadequate user-interface technology.
A method for rapidly locating pages on a web site is shown, for instance at www.sherwin.com, which is operated by The Sherwin-Williams Co. The site describes products and services offered by The Sherwin-Williams Company. One page, Products and Services, at www.sherwin.com/productsservices/default.asp, shows several menus and sub-menus that function as hyperlinks to other pages within the Sherwin-Williams website. Sub-menus that are not initially visible are displayed when a cursor is moved over a displayed menu items, which is referred to as a xe2x80x9cmouse overxe2x80x9d. The display makes hyperlinks within it""s website available quickly, in a relatively small amount of space.
However, the Sherwin-Williams website is not a search site and is not used to search a database or other information source. The site provides hyperlinks to individual pages within the Sherwin-Williams website. When a user has made one choice on sherwin.com/productsservices/default.asp, a different page is displayed and no additional choices are possible.
With the Sherwin-Williams technology, a user cannot access information from a database of information. A user cannot make successive choices to refine their selection as they would with a Directory or non-hierarchical search. When the user selects any hyperlink, the user is then presented with a different page. The different page does not offer any menu choices as on the Services and Products page. There is no database search function associated with the display on the Sherwin-Williams site.
Accordingly, there is a need to facilitate and speed up the presentation and selection of search technologies. This, in turn, will substantially increase the commercial value and practicability of online searching.
It is an object of the present invention to reduce the amount of time needed to display and select search terms from any user-interface that displays search terms. It is an object of the invention to eliminate or minimize features that add unneeded complexity to a display. This includes eliminating the use of scroll bars, task bars and graphics that must be clicked to signal page reorganization or page changes. It is also an object of the present invention to eliminate the need for any mechanical activity on the part of the user that interferes with the users ability to scan large numbers of search terms and select search terms quickly.
Users may scan and select quickly without the need to interpret a variety of icons and instructions and without the need to perform more than the minimum number of physical actions. The user is not slowed down by pick boxes, scrolling pages, scrolling lists of hyperlinked terms or selecting functions from a task bar, as required by conventional systems.
These goals are achieved by presenting search terms that are meaningfully organized and then advancing the display of choices when a mouse or other pointing device passes over specific parts of the display screen. The display changes quickly to reveal different or additional search terms. If the user wants a list that is displayed to be removed from the visual display, the user simply moves the pointing device to a xe2x80x9cblankxe2x80x9d area of the display screen.
The present invention reduces, and almost eliminates, the clicking, scrolling and page reorganization that has been required by search directories and non-hierarchical search systems heretofore. Hence, mechanical actions and unnecessary decision making that slow the selection of search terms are eliminated. The display of graphics is simplified so the user""s attention is not distracted from the process of scanning and quickly selecting search terms.